I'm no longer sad...

[eumelia]

I'm fucking pissed off.

What I called sadness before was the simmering of low grade anger.

Two dead men for a convicted murderer, four militants and almost two hundred bodies.

It's obscene.

As I mentioned in my previous entry the only good thing that came out of macabre exchange is the fact that the Regevs and Goldwassers can mourn properly and move on.

At this point there really is no problem for Hamas to ax Gilad Shalit because they know that Israel will pay whatever they demand for the body of a dead soldier.

Bargaining land for peace makes sense as a large cause of the strife and conflict is over land. Exchanging combatants for combatants makes sense as it is akin to a POW swap (which would work if each side considered the other worthy opponents but that's an all together different matter).

Hizbullah and Hamas are calling this an honourable exchange. I dunno, creating this kind of turmoil in families lives lacks any kind of honour that I've heard of. Maybe I'm projecting my own perception of what "good form" is, but there it is.

I hope everybody is fucking pleased.

Comments

[lishablog.livejournal.com]

I was shocked when I looked at the news on the Web this morning and saw the black boxes, and that shock just keeps coming back in harder and harder waves... What the hell? Did we really just hand over all those people and all those bodies for TWO (2) corpses? Did they really string us along, pretending that these two men might possibly be alive, maybe possibly? And did we just FALL for it?

My heart aches desperately for the Regev and Goldwasser families. I'm so sorry that all they got back was memories and closure. It's not enough. It's really not enough.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

It's just part of the Israeli ethos.
All civilians are soldiers, all soldiers are civilians and the price to brining them home is never to high.

Except when it is.

I'm happy the families have closure, but it seems like so little.

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

I listened to the BBC this morning. After the report on the exchange, three listeners from Lebanon wrote to the Beeb on email to say that they thought it was wrong of Hisbollah to make the families wait to hear whether their sons were alive.

It made me cry to hear that. I wouldn't have expected it.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I'm not really surprised, most people have an innate sense of compassion in the face of real agony and grief.

That and the fact that Hizbullah have been behaving like a bunch of school kids that pulled a truly horrible prank on someone and got away with it.

[sentjao.livejournal.com]

"Bargaining land for peace makes sense as a large cause of the strife and conflict is over land."

I am not convinced, that this is the case. If it were merely a territorial problem, it would have been solved long ago. Lebanon has no territorial claims to Israel.

The struggle is between humanism and barbarity.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

The struggle is between humanism and barbarity.

Yeah, well, that argument doesn't fly with me.
Sorry.
We (and neither do "They") don't get to decide what's "Human" and what's "Barbarian", simply because of cultural differences and that really all it is.

[sentjao.livejournal.com]

Cultural differences? Common. Cultural differences we have with Europe, Japan and yes, with Arabs, too. This is not about cultural differences. Just as fascism in Europe was not about cultural differences or communism in Russia was not about cultural differences. Open your eyes. This is society, overwhelmed by barbarity. This is not about cultural differences that the most popular leader in the Arab world is Hassan Nasrallah, followed by Bashar Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I like how you conflate all the Arabs in one neat package, which doesn't exist. Neither does "Europe" despite the Union which is false unity, btw, I don't think a French person identifies equally as, say, Italian.

My eyes are open, thanks, that's how I can the inherent racism in your words. Especially the way you equate all the "Arab" leaders (and left out General Gedaffi, because we're not in direct conflict with him, I assume, though he's just as "popular" and in your words "barbaric") as pretty much the same - despite the fact that Ahmadinejad isn't Arab, but Persian, that Assad is considered pretty week in many circles and Nasrallah is also considered a thug in many circles.

Look, it's obvious we're going to disagree and not convince each other in our view of the worlds. This is not a clash of civilizations, or cultural difference - I was mainly talking about the arbitrary line you drew between "Us" and "Them" as Humans and Barbarians, which as I've said, doesn't fly.
I think their value systems suck. Touting a baby killer as a hero is a shame on them... but you know what; shame on us for agreeing to release him. We lost a bit of honour there as well.

[sentjao.livejournal.com]

Racism in my words? No, sorry, there is no racism in my words. And I don't generalize. I posted in my blog links to Lebanese blogs, where many people write, that they are disgusted and ashamed by Samir Kuntar and all this celebration.
These people are, unfortunately, minority in Lebanese and in the Palestinian society. I don't think it would be racist to say, that sixty five years ago German society was overwhelmed with barbarity. So is about today's Arab societies, many of them, at least. "Their value system sucks" as you put it.

The fact that Germans were barbaric society sixty five years ago doesn't mean, that they are not entitled to be nation or to have their state. Just like the Palestinians. Today they are society with extreme anti-liberal values, cult of death, with criminal ethos and genocidal ideology. But it doesn't mean, that they have no right for their state.

But, in my opinion, not before this barbarity is defeated, crushed and discredited, not before the process similar with de-Nazification, which took place in Germany.

I don't know, how to defeat this barbarity. I think it will take decades.

And I don't think, that we should be ashamed of this deal. I think, we should be proud of it. We didn't know for sure, that the reservists are dead and you cannot say to the families that "your loved ones are almost certainly dead therefore we'll stop looking for them". You cannot say to Karnit Goldwasser that "it's 90% that you're not an aguna".